1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of sensory stimulation and, more particularly, to method and apparatus for producing encoded aural and/or visual stimuli that significantly improve alarm, awareness and object locatability for human beings.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, devices that produce sound or light have been proposed as locator aids. Assistance in locating misplaced or lost objects is a widespread need. Assistance is needed when emergency equipment or surgical devices are misplaced; when a lost object may be easily damaged if inadvertently physically contacted; and when a lost object, such as a weapon, would be dangerous where lost or if accidently or unknowingly encountered. The needs for compact, effective and long lived apparatus and method for producing sensory stimulations which enhance human alarm, awareness and locatability are very important to human safety. Additionally, everyday objects such as keys, eye glasses, credit cards, wallets, portable telephones, office equipment and remote controls for entertainment equipment are easily misplaced. Often it is time consuming, difficult and frustrating to locate them. The present invention greatly improves and enhances alarm, awareness and source locatability for a large percentage of people when it is applied to, or integrated with, these or similar objects. As such, the present invention represents a significant advancement over currently available sound beepers or light flashers.
This invention, based on unexpected and unanticipated human physiological and psychological responses, overcomes certain drawbacks associated with currently available beepers or flashers which can be difficult to locate. Currently available beepers or flashers fail to effectively stimulate specific human conscious and subconscious physiological and psychological reactions that enhance alarm, awareness and locatability.
The present invention solves these problems by providing a low cost, compact, effective, long lived, power efficient and portable apparatus and method for producing new and novel encoded aural and/or visual sensory stimuli. These aural and/or visual stimuli greatly enhance alarm, awareness and locatability for a large percentage of human beings, including those who have only partial hearing and those with certain vision impairments.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,493,966 to A. T. Human on Feb. 3, 1970 for Electronic Audible Alarm Devices Having Plural Oscillators relates to a dual function horn/siren having a coupling between the two sound generating functions. This device has a siren produced by a variable voltage source and a horn produced by two oscillators with different frequency outputs driving the same speaker in a fixed relationship, with one oscillator being variable. There is no suggestion for producing a locatable apparatus, nor does this patent suggest producing encoded aural stimuli.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,693,110 to C. A. Briggs, Jr., et al., on Sep. 19, 1972 for an Audible Signal or Alarm Device Including Two Variable Frequency Unijunction Transistor Oscillators relates to an electrical circuit that includes a pair of unijunction transistors, an amplifier, a speaker and a switch. This device provides adjustable output signals that may be steady or have varying frequency with different rates for varying output signals and different basic frequency signals. The circuit can be modified to give programmed output signals. There is no suggestion for producing a locatable device or encoding aural stimuli.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,057,769 to L. D. Woolf on Nov. 8, 1977 for a Circuit for Generating Two Distinctive Tone Bursts with Exponentially Decaying Envelopes relates to an electrical circuit which generates an electrical signal at one or the other of two predetermined frequencies. This circuit also has an attenuator that over time varies a controlled burst of oscillations at the two frequencies. This device is described as being combined with an alarm for public address systems and not as a locatable apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,517 to K. J. Ajland on Dec. 23, 1986 for a Frequency-Matched Signal Device for Persons with Impaired Hearing relates to an adjustable tone alarm that produces one or two tones matched to the specific audiogram of a particular hearing impaired individual. The apparatus disclosed is not a locatable device and only simple tones are employed. This device does not generate complex encoded sound or light that would enable a person to locate an object, nor does this device coordinate the sound with the sensory sensitivity of more than one person in order to produce a tone or tones that are audible by a large percentage of the population.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,096 to H. A. Moore, et al., on Jun. 9, 1992 for Position Locating Device relates to a light and sound alarm which is pulsed on and off by a common driver signal of fixed timing. Only one specific simple sound, a pure 2.5 KHz tone at 70 Db &lt;sic&gt;, is mentioned. No attention is directed toward generating sound and/or light which could heighten a person's alarm, alertness or ability to determine the source's location. Accordingly, the sound and light emitted by the device disclosed are difficult for a person to localize.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,204,657 to R. A. Prosser on Apr. 20, 1993 for a Locating Device has a locating circuit containing an oscillator/counter logic circuit, a reset circuit, a reset beep circuit, an enable flip-flop, a delay flip-flop, a mux flip-flop, a mux logic circuit and a piezo oscillator circuit. The device is generally used to locate a misplaced television remote control or credit card. It discloses three sets of varying length beeps.
The present invention solves many alarm and awareness problems for a large percentage of human beings, especially for the hearing impaired and those with certain non-correctable vision impairments in situations where locating an object is difficult. The present invention enhances alarm, alertness and locatability. Previous devices fail to enhance human abilities to rapidly estimate the relative distance to the object and at least two relative angles between the human beings and the object.